about

This book makes the compelling argument that Chaucer, the Perle-poet, and The Cloud of Unknowing author exploited analogue and metaphor for marking out the pedagogical gap between science and the imagination. These writers take up an Aristotelian confidence in reason as a proof model for works of the imagination. St. Augustine, too, had argued persuasively that we might well train ourselves "to discern in the light of reason what [we] already hold by faith." By the 12th century, John of Salisbury, in his Metalogicon, had argued that "sensation is the progenitor of science." Chaucer, the Perle-poet, and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing set out models for such instruction—for seeing from the center—as they map the pedagogical energy of the browsing imagination. Here, Linda Tarte Holley adds definition to arguments that still gain our attention and energies in the twenty-first century.

About The Author

Linda Tarte Holley is Professor Emerita at North Carolina State University. She is the author of Chaucer's Measuring Eye and the co-editor of Closure in the Canterbury Tales.

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Details & Specs

Title:Reason and Imagination in Chaucer, the Perle-poet, and the Cloud-author: Seeing from the CenterFormat:HardcoverDimensions:200 pagesPublished:September 20, 2011Publisher:Palgrave Macmillan USLanguage:English

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10:0230105106

ISBN - 13:9780230105102

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Extra Content

Table of Contents

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale: Bookspace as Public Plaza * The House of Fame: "I wot myself best how y stonde" * The Book of the Duchess: The Space of Self * Perle: The Pedagogy of Soul and Self * Patience: The Space of Play * The Cloud of Unknowing: The Space of the Seeking Spirit

Editorial Reviews

"Palgrave's The New Middle Ages series puts out thought-provoking and theoretically timely books. Holley's book, too, fulfills that mission . . . Not only is Holley's book thought-provoking in terms of the relation or struggle between reason and imagination and its gaps, but also it suggests that the gaps between the 'modern' and the 'medieval' are not as wide as we think." - The Medieval Review